Kateri Tekakwitha also known as Catherine Tekakwitha/Takwita, was born in 1656
in Gandahouhague, on the south bank of the Mohawk River, in a village called Ossernenon.
The Mohawks were known as the fiercest of the "Five Nations" of the Iroquois.
War was waged between the Mohawks and Algonquins. Kateri's mother, a christian
Algonquin, was taken captive by a Mohawk warrior and soon they were married. They
had a happy life together and eventually had a girl. They named her Tekakwitha,
which means "she who moves forward". When she was four years old, a smallpox epidemic
claimed the lives of her parents and baby brother. Their names are unknown. Kateri
survived the disease but her eyesight was impaired. Her face was scarred and the
disease left her weak the rest of her life. After five years of the sickness,
the survivors of the village moved to the north bank of the river to begin a new
life. Tekakwitha and her relatives moved into the Turtle Clan village called Gandaouague.

She was then raised by aunts and an uncle, the Chief of the Turtle Clan.

In 1667 the Jesuit missionaries Fremin, Bruyas, and Pierron spent three days
in the lodge of Tekakwutga's uncle. They had accompanied the Mohawk delegation
who had been to Quebec to conclude peace with the French. From the Blackrobes
she received her first knowledge of Christianity.

In 1670 the Blackrobes established St. Peter's Mission in Caughnawaga now Fonda,
NY.

In 1674, Fr. James de Lamberville arrived to take charge of the mission which
included the Turtle Clan.

Tekakwitha met Father de Lamberville when he visited her home. She told him about
her desire to become baptized. Despite opposition to Christianity from her tribe
and particularly her uncle, she met with the Blackrobe in secret. She began to
take religious instructions. On Easter Sunday, April 5, 1676, at the age of 20,
she was baptized and given the name Kateri, Indian for Katherine. Her family wanted
her to abandon her religion. She became the subject of increased contempt from
the people of her village for her conversion, as well as her refusal to work on
Sundays or to marry. She practice her religion unflinchingly in the face of almost
unbearable opposition. Finally her uncle's lodge ceased to be a place of protection
to her.

With the help of Christian Indians she fled her village. Two months later and
about two hundred miles through woods, rivers and swamps, Kateri arrived at the
Sault.

On Christmas Day, 1677, Kateri received her first Holy Communion. Here she lived
in the cabin of a Christian Indian, Mary Teresa Tegaiaguenta. She and Kateri became
friends. Both girls performed extraordinary penance. Kateri and her friend asked
permission to start a religious community. The request was denied.

At Caughnawaga she contributed to the community's economy while engaging in great
personal sacrifices. She also continued to keep her personal vow of chastity.

In 1678, Kateri was enrolled in the pious society called The Holy Family because
of her extraordinary practices of all virtues.

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha died on April 17, 1680, when she was 24 years of age.
When she died, much to the amazement of those in attendance, all the disfiguring
scars on her face miraculously disappeared.

Pope John Paul II beatified her in Rome on June 22, 1980, in the presence of
hundreds of North American Indians. She is now known to us as Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha.

Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha died on April 17, 1680, when she was 24 years of age.
In the past, we commemorated her Feast Day on the day of her death. April 17 often
falls during the season of Lent or during Easter Week. When the Bishops of the
United States gathered for their fall meeting in Washington, DC, in November 1982,
they voted to change the day of observance of the Feast of Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha
to July 14th. The new feast day will enable the Church in the United States to
celebrate and honor Blessed Kateri without the feast day overlapping with the
season of Lent. We prayerfully await the day that our Holy Father proclaims her
Saint Kateri.

Kateri Tekakwitha, our "Lily of the Mohawks."

~ ~PRAYER FOR CANONIZATION~ ~

"O God, who among the many marvels of Your Grace in the New World, did cause
to blossom on the banks of the Mohawk and of the St. Lawrence, the pure and tender
Lily, Kateri Tekakwitha, grant we beseech You, the favor we beg through her intercession
- that this Young Lover of Jesus and of His Cross may soon be counted among her
Saints by Holy Mother Church, and that our hearts may be enkindled with a stronger
desire to imitate her innocence and faith. Through the same Christ Our Lord.

~ Amen ~

~ ~ NOVENA MEDITATION THOUGHTS~ ~

Day I ~ Prayer ~ Union with God

"The Prayer" was the Mohawk name for religion; "praying Indian" the name for
a Christian Indian. All was open in an Indian Village, and the priests had to
pray publicly. Their converts assembled in the chapel for prayer. Prayer is union
with God, and what else is religion?

When Tekakwitha saw the missionaries at prayer in her uncle's cabin, the sight
irresistibly attracted her. It helped to unite her with God, until her life became
an act of prayer, of union with God.

Day II ~ Grace ~ A Child of God

Grace is the thought that comes with mention of Tekakwitha. Unbaptized until
her twentieth year, through no fault of her parents or her own, she still was
a child of grace, which means that she grew up in God's favor. She did all the
good she could to retain God's favor. Kateri was a child of grace. May we, like
Our Lord, grow in wisdom, age and grace!

Day III ~ Holiness ~ Heroic Virtues

Holy are those whose faith, hope and charity are extraordinary, who cultivate
the virtues: prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, and the good habits which
grow out of these: prayer, humility, obedience, patience, resignation, penance.
In all these Tekakwitha excelled.

Day IV ~ Names of Kateri

All her names inspire admiration and affection. Kateri, Iroquois form of Catherine,
her baptismal name, means pure, and she was purity itself.
"Lily of the Mohawks." Lily is the emblem of purity. She is known as "The Good
Catherine", because so many have received favors by invoking her.
St. Genevieve had saved Paris of Old France; Kateri was named Genevieve of New
France after she had saved the mission and the missionaries.
Tekakwitha means "putting things in order", or "moving before her". She put order
among her people, and moves all by answers to prayer.
This flower of our American wildwood is already Blessed; may she soon be named
Saint!

Day V ~ Innocence

One who is innocent will harm nobody, nor see evil in others; will not shock,
scandalize or grieve them, but give them edification, pleasure, and win their
admiration and affection.

She remained innocent: thought no evil, harbored no suspicion, entertained no
ill-will, as if she were not of this world.

Day VI ~ The Blessed Sacrament

Out from her Caughnawaga cabin at dawn and straight-way to chapel to adore the
Blessed Sacrament, hear every Mass; back again during the day to hear instruction,
and at night for a last prayer or Benediction. Her neighbors sought to be near
her when she received Holy Communion, as her manner excited devotion.

Day VII ~ The Cross

Tekakwitha loved the image of the Cross. During the hunt she made an oratory
in the woods by cutting a cross in the bark of a tree. The first picture of her,
the only portrait of an Indian of that long ago, represents her venerating a small
cross. It moved her to do penance in order to imitate Our Lord in His Passion.

Day VIII ~ The Blessed Virgin

The faithful Indian convert women would tell her how affectionate her mother
was. That would help her to know how affectionate the Mother of Christ was and
still is in heaven. The rosary and the Litany were favorite prayers of hers. More
than once she walked or canoed ten miles from her Mohawk village, Caughnawaga,
to Tionontoguen, where the statue of Our Lady was venerated under the title, Virgin
Most Faithful.

Day IX ~ Invocation

Although we are not yet permitted to express publicly the belief that Tekakwitha
is among the Saints in Heaven, it is our private belief and we pray that the Church
may soon declare it. While awaiting this, we invoke her aid. Wonderful are the
favors attributed to her. While praying for our own needs, we should pray for
her canonization.